The feeling here in St. Louis is that most likely Bradford is going to be given the keys from the get-go. Whether that is right or not remains to be seen, but for this franchise to sell tickets, it needs it's franchise player on the field. It makes more sense from a football perspective to start AJ "Touchy" Feely, but Bradford has had a major positive buzz in the town, and I just don't see how he won't be under center sooner rather than later.

Ram Bradford

It seems to me that it only makes sense to start him from day 1 for a couple of reasons.

The biggest is that not starting him means the rams would be flushing yet another season down the toilet. If they start feeley or anyone other than Bradford they are still not going to contend for a title this year. Then next year they will be starting Bradford and it will be like he is starting as a rookie anyway since he has no NFL game experience, which likely adds another year before they are ready to really compete for anything since it is unlikely that a QB starting in his first year is going to be super successful. It is possible but not likely. It just seems like the experience gained from being on the field is far more valuable than any experienced gained from sitting on the bench.

Second, isn’t it likely he will be best option for the team right away anyway? It’s not like he will be sitting behind someone that has had success in the league as a starter. It doesn’t seem farfetched to that he will be the best quarterback on the roster by the start of the regular season. Not just them putting him out there because it will be good PR.

Third, it will be really good for the fan base to see him out there right away because rams fans want nothing to do with feeley or wasting any more time waiting on a new quarterback that the Rams should have started looking for 3 years ago

I can understand the Rams taking a left tackle last year-though Smith had a couple injury issues, he will probably be a bookend left tackle for 10+ years. Anyone who knows anything about football knows that the left tackle position can make or break the whole team-this pick was necessary. I can understand taking Long the year prior in the 1st round-the Rams were lacking a pass rush, other than the aging Leonard Little. Football teams must have a pass rush to succeed. While Long has not made the Pro Bowl yet, he is developing OK and will be a decent player. These were critical needs that had to be filled with marquee talent-franchise left tackles don't come along very often and rarely if ever are free agents.

While it was frustrating for Rams fans to watch (for example) Matt Ryan have good success with the Falcons, the Falcons had a WAY better O-line, running game, and WR than the Rams had at that time. Matt came into an ideal situation, with talent already there. The Rams had nothing 3 years ago-the cupboard was way past bare. A franchise QB for the Rams will now at least have a chance to survive a season without being in a body cast-the Rams are still not great but I think they finally have the right foundation of surrounding talent to help Bradford at least hold his own. 3 years ago, a franchise QB for the Rams would have been pummelled by the defenses and probably had a short career-as it was, the careers of Kurt Warner and Marc Bulger were nearly derailed by poor surrounding talent and strange coaching. While the Rams are probably 2+ years away from getting in the playoffs, they are moving forward with good drafts, and have a very capable head coach.

As Joe Theismann pointed out, the QB is the most dependent position on the field-everyone else must do their jobs for him to succeed. With links missing, the QB will suffer. Any QB will tell you it takes a bunch of guys playing well together to win-hopefully the Rams are assembling that bunch of guys.

If Bradford is a holdout there is no issue. When he does sign the big money will add pressure to play him right away. Since this is not a make or break year for the current coaching staff they will probably go conservative and not even consider playing him until the fifth or sixth game. There are so many other contributing factors such as the health of the offensive line and Steven Jackson. Those factors will probably sort themselves out by the bye week. If everything looks good look for him the big decision on his playing status for the season to be made during the bye week.

Bradford should not start right away...of course it will be tempting after an 0-8 start but remember that you will be paying this guy a ridiculous amount of money and the last thing you wanna do is mismanage the start of this guys career. I personally dont think he is an NFL QB but the best thing the Rams could do is just let him sit the whole year learn the system letting get strong and look forward to 2011

Bradford should not start right away...of course it will be tempting after an 0-8 start but remember that you will be paying this guy a ridiculous amount of money and the last thing you wanna do is mismanage the start of this guys career. I personally dont think he is an NFL QB but the best thing the Rams could do is just let him sit the whole year learn the system letting get strong and look forward to 2011

The Rams would be wise to consider the big picture rather than fans wanting to see the new toy right away. Hasn't history shown us that sitting is better than rushing into it most of the time? On the other hand how do you keep all that $$ on the pine?

As I recall, Eli Manning did not start for the Giants until Game 5-6 of his rookie year. The guy who started those first games was . . . Kurt Warner. While I think it would be better to delay Bradford starting for a bit, there will be HUGE pressure on the Rams to throw him out there from Game 1, as this team badly needs to sell tickets and needs to fire up a fan base that has endured unwatchable football for over 5 years. As long as Bradford reports to camp on time, he will likely be starting Game 1 of the regular season. I hope for his sake that the Rams running game can help him out.

The yack I am hearing says that Bradford will be making as much or more $$ than Tom Brady/Peyton Manning. No way the Rams are going to be shelling out that kind of cash so the kid can carry a clipboard. Maybe he'll sit for a few games, but the clamor from both the fans and the owner's box with push him on the field sooner rather than later. Rams fans better hope the kid can be more durable than he was at Oklahoma because he's gonna get smacked around a bit.